Herewith a proposal for a logo for the SANParks forums that was submitted to SANParks by the VHRs. This proposal has been approved by SANParks.

Logo for SANParks Forum members

1. Background and need

The SANParks forum has existed for close to six years.

Many members participate on the forum daily for their SANParks ‘fix’ as they cannot visit the Parks as much as they would like to. A very loyal group of members has emerged. They assist with giving advice, planning trips, bringing compliments and complaints, hold conservation related discussions etc.

Over the years, these members have also raised funds for the webcams and last year raised R90 000 for the SANParks Conservation Project. During the first third of 2010, R34 000 was raised towards projects to be undertaken by the Virtual Region of the Honorary Rangers, and R16000 was raised towards SANParks Conservation Project.

The new Honorary Ranger region, the Virtual region, which does service on the forums and website, has undertaken to motivate to SANParks for a specific forum logo.

The SANParks forum members see themselves as a ‘club’ of SANParks supporters who contribute on the forums and website as well as to projects for the benefit of SANParks. Most of these members will never have the opportunity to join the SANParks Honorary Rangers and therefore will not be able to belong to a group that has permission to wear SANParks identifiers.

The forum members wish to have their ‘own’ forum specific logo, which will link them with SANParks, to use on projects they are undertaking such as:- posters advertising the webcams; - proposed posters informing of the rules of the Parks and any other conservation related projects they become involved in; - print on shirts and caps so that they can be identified as a group/club that is linked to SANParks; - be adopted by the bird club that has been running on the forum for a number of years.

These clothing items would be worn when visiting the Parks or to ‘meets’ (where forum members meet together all over the world). The Yellow Ribbon (tied on the driver side mirror) has become custom as a way of identifying forum members when they visit the SANParks and linking this into the proposed new logo would be significant to the forum community.

2. Pros and cons

Pros:As the use of internet spreads both in South Africa and abroad, the amount of SANParks clients using the website, forums and other groups on the internet (such as Facebook) is bound to continue to increase. Providing this group with a specific logo will not only satisfy the forum members but it could have huge marketing benefits for SANParks: with the establishment of the Virtual Region of the Honorary Rangers these stakeholders of SANParks are now able to initiate and follow through on many projects to the benefit of SANParks. A logo that has a link to SANParks and the website will mean that they could therefore be identified as a group or club of supporters of SANParks. Such a logo could, in future, be adapted for use by other groups that might apply to SANParks for logos for their unique group.Cons:A couple of forum members have posted how they act as ‘police’/or guides while in the Parks. A forum specific logo on shirts being worn by some of these members could encourage this type of behaviour and it is understandable that SANParks would want to avoid this. Considering this, we accept this logo will need to be one that is a totally separate logo from the one used by Officials and one specifically for the use of SANParks forum members (supporters and/or fans), thereby ensuring that the wearers are not mistaken as officials.3. Proposed implementation

Should SANParks agree to the establishments of a ‘forum specific logo’ the website could be used to hold a competition which would involve stakeholders in choosing the logo by submitting designs within guidelines approved by SANParks with the five possible proposed logos being submitted to SANParks to select a final one from.

4. Summary

It is really hoped that SANParks will meet with favour the proposal for a specific logo to be used by the forum members on items of clothing and projects undertaken by them.

Coming late into these threads is NOT a good idea, but here goes the cat among the pigeon anyway. All I ask is that you play the ball, not the man!

Ideally, a logo needs to be SIMPLE, UNIQUE, EASILY IDENTIFIABLE and should ideally relate to the group it is attempting to represent. Consider the SANParks logo of the Kudu head.... or any logo of other successful companies/groups around - They need to be able to be stand-alone, yet still easily recognizable, printable at any size, and ideally void of any distracting writing.

It takes huge amounts of effort to get a good logo to become a great logo and eventually move it into an iconic state. Think of all the logos that you believe are great, how they relate to the company / Product / Group and whether they actually look like the product or not. Think of brands such as Coca-Cola, Nike, SanParks, Infinity, Microsoft, SAA, WWF, and the list goes on.....

I would suggest that the logo design be as simple as possible such that it can eventually become the recognized logo of the Forum, no matter what the future for the forum may hold.... To bring in so many areas of interest into a logo is likely to create more confusion than clarity....

"Take nothing but memories, leave nothing but footprints"

Photographs help to crystallize memories, but cannot be seen to be a replacement of them!

Can I send a description of my logo design to one of the team rather than an actual graphic? I have drawn my logo with pencil on paper but I can't do anything with a desktop program (don't have one I can use ) Then maybe someone can draw up my logo and send me a PM back with it to see if its how I want it? Sorry, that sounds like a lot of work! But I think my logo is OK - simple but OK